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Vore

Vore

United Kingdom
January 2005

JAN 08, 2005 11:39 AM

Wilbur Middle School, located in Wichita, Kansas, has banned 'alternative' modes of dress despite a none-uniform policy. Wilbur is just the latest in a long line of schools telling students that dressing like a Goth is out of line while in class.

Principal Cherie Crain says black lipstick, eye shadow, nail polish and hair dye are banned, along with all-black clothing. Also on the list are such accessories as studded metal bracelets and graphic T-shirts advertising heavy metal bands.

With certain modes of fashion rising in mainstream popularity, the concept of what is acceptable is yet again being tested. As hippie and punk styles were rejected by society in earlier decades, the penchant of today's youth for dressing "freakishly" is alarming enough to teachers and administrators that it is prompting more and more bans on what a student can wear while at school.

In the past, only two or three among Wilbur's 1,000 students dressed Goth. Crain said she let that slide. [....But as of] last week, about a dozen kids had adopted the Goth look.

One mother complained about the rule change, saying "They're just standing around doing nothing and looking freaky.''

The lesson here is, three Goths are okay, but twelve are just too intimidating.

courtland_17

courtland_17

Canada
June 2004

JAN 08, 2005 02:20 PM

to be totally honest i had two reactions to this.

one was that i wanted to yell in rage and frustration and smack the computer screen.
the second was that i wanted to cry.

this goes beyond banning offensive slogans and swear-words on shirts. this is dictating what normalcy is. now these kids are not only going to be made fun of by fellow students, but teachers will be able to pass judgement too.

[Edited on Jan 08, 2005 2:20PM]

girlwithwings

girlwithwings

Bloomington, IN
September 2004

JAN 08, 2005 02:21 PM

oh. growl. whatever. i don't dress that way myself, but middle- and high schools shouldn't be given the authority to ban black clothes or hair dye (both of which i have used/worn heavily for years). institute a real dress code if you're going to pull that kind of shit. when i was in middle school they banned backpacks, and my younger sister (who is tiny, quiet, and not at all intimidating) got in trouble for wearing a metallic bracelet because it could have been used as a weapon, or so they thought. in high school they banned "revealing" clothes--aka bras and daisy dukes, which were a regular habit among some of the girls...

i think it's all bullshit.

Twwly

Twwly

SUICIDEGIRL

Ontario, Canada

JAN 08, 2005 02:22 PM

I'd rather see ALL the kids in uniform than have a dozen of them singled out.

Bah.

Principal Cherie, this issue is so 1999.

DaGhost

DaGhost

USA
December 2003

JAN 08, 2005 02:26 PM

My response, I wish I had a law degree. It would be so self-gratifying to do a pro=bomo, what the fuck are you thinking, lawsuit on this.

Cash

Cash

USA
OLD SKOOL

JAN 08, 2005 02:26 PM

I understand not allowing studded bracelets...but all-black clothing?

Like, what are the beatniks gonna do, man? This rule is like, squaresville.

sugar_on_asphalt

sugar_on_asphalt

Dekalb, IL
June 2003

JAN 08, 2005 02:26 PM

I agree with Twwly. If you're going to tell kids what they can and can't wear (outside of the traditional "public indecency" laws), just stick them in uniforms, for God's sake.

CaptBlackHeart

CaptBlackHeart

Denver, CO
August 2004

JAN 08, 2005 02:26 PM

well atleast the school will be safer now that tyhose 12 students can't dress wierd. we really should put that into consideration. oh wait no i'm sorry it has no direct effect at all on anything of any kind of significance. i really think school should concentrate more on teaching the students education and less on how to present themselves. that may just be me though.

Brinstar

Brinstar

Chicago, IL
September 2002

JAN 08, 2005 02:30 PM

On the one hand it sucks.

On the other hand this stuff went on back when I was in grade school with me and my skater/biker friends. We either ignored them or just wore whatever we could get away with, always sort of testing the line.

I don't know, back then we thought it was sort of cool that stuff we wore wasn't allowed. Made us feel rebellious or whatever. Of course, we were dumb kids...

MC_Dove

MC_Dove

Cincinnati, OH
November 2004

JAN 08, 2005 02:31 PM

the whole distracting thing is quite interesting, in my opinion. i'm not goth, but i suppose i dressed "distractingly" in highschool. but if my distracting ass wasn't at that school, i bet a bunch of kids would have done significantly worse academically, considering that i helped a lot of my classmates pass their courses. i myself graduated 7th in my class, and earn over a 3.8 in the honors program at my college. weird kids are kids, too.

if you read the whole article, the principal mentions something about younger kids feeling "intimidated" by this enourmous mob of goths being one of the reasons for the new code. so, instead teaching tolerance for differences, the principal is going to intimidate the "weird" ones. way to go.

but i have to say, after researching this school, i have to applaud some of the parents. if you read reviews of the schools, several parents have commented on the lousy administration and have even gone so far as to find better schools for their kids. at least somebody is sticking up for the oddballs.

Dr_Zoidberg

Dr_Zoidberg

Raymore, MO
June 2004

JAN 08, 2005 02:36 PM

mad

leggo

leggo

El Cajon, CA
December 2004

JAN 08, 2005 03:15 PM

i say hurrah.

tell students they can't get prince abert peircings and safty pin them to the inside of thier pants and 80% will do just that.

but individuality will lose meaning in a lame fad.

but i can't wait to see the Robert Smith wannabe jocks having thir moms dress them up as "80's goth"


priceless.

Vore

Vore

United Kingdom
January 2005

JAN 08, 2005 03:28 PM

Schools teach little of worth anymore, they don't manage to teach a work ethic (didn't work on me anyhow) and they teach a very strange mixed bag of morals. It's only because this group isn't part of a represented minority such as a religious group that it's even possible to discriminate without legal repercussions.

Do we want to teach kids to descriminate whenever they can get away with it?

As a brit I wore uniform most of my schooling which sucked enough (discrimination against all is as bad as the few) but at least we were all equelly repressed.

Remyx

remyx

Little Rock, AR
March 2004

JAN 08, 2005 03:40 PM

Twwly said:
I'd rather see ALL the kids in uniform than have a dozen of them singled out.

Bah.

Principal Cherie, this issue is so 1999.



yeah, i agree. school shouldn't be about style or social issues, but unfortunately when you stick kids together for 8 hours a day for 12 years, these things become more important than learning.

put 'em all in uniforms but allow the black lipstick and nail polish.

Midnyte

Midnyte

SUICIDEGIRL

Arizona, USA

JAN 08, 2005 03:44 PM

Eeeep.... What is going on with people these days? Isn't there enough going on in their lives that they should be focusing on?

My 11 year old has long black hair, he has had it red, green, blue and yellow too and black with various colors of stripes. And he wears a long black trench coat to school. Thankfully I live in a district that does allow him to look this way. If they ever changed it I would be SO up some school officials shit. I guess that is the thing, the school board members ARE elected officials. I'd hope people who don't like this will take note who those board members are and not vote for them next time around. That aside, if I was there, my kid would go to school every day wearing whatever I think he should wear, and I’d take the attitude the school could kiss my ass, I live in this neighborhood and I pay taxes here and no one except me should tell my child how to dress.

School is not like work. A job you can quit or not take if you don't like the dress policy, school you are forced to go. grrrr.

Where will it end? This horrible regression.

ChezGeek

ChezGeek

Port Orchard, WA
January 2004

JAN 08, 2005 04:01 PM

i say whatever. big friggin deal. im all for self expresssioin, but seriously, not a big deal here.

wottan

wottan

Vancouver, BC
July 2004

JAN 08, 2005 04:23 PM

Of course they want you to be a freethinking upstanding individual, as long as your are someone who thinks, and acts like them.

Cigarette

Cigarette

Cleveland, OH
April 2004

JAN 08, 2005 04:37 PM

On the one hand, they're creating a highly autocratic, discriminatory policy.

On the other hand, that's a dozen less kids goth'd up...

I'm torn.

TheDishwasher

TheDishwasher

Frederick, MD
July 2004

JAN 08, 2005 04:53 PM

i agree with the whole stick em all in uniforms idea, if you are going to ban things that arent offensive, revealing or weapon-like, then thats the only thing that makes sense... this way it just teaches kids that its OK to treat kids who dress "weirdly" differently mad

Griffith

Griffith

Richmond, KY
February 2004

JAN 08, 2005 05:13 PM

Is this really an issue? Are kids who are kept from wearing ratty torn pants any worse off than anyone else? Are people that are forced to wear uniforms less likely to succeed? Crying foul on the loss of individuality has always been silly to me when these things are concerned. You're still plenty an individual capable of expressing yourself, no matter what you're wearing. If all it takes to make you "one of the crowd" is banning your hairystyle and clothing choices, I say it's about time to do some heavy introspection because you are, I'm afraid, nothing but a cliché.

Express individualism through your speech and actions and leave the clothing woes to the preps who have to fork out hundreds of dollars for a pair of beat up jeans.

(Oh, and uhm...If they're individuals, how come they all dress the same? ^^)

[Edited on Jan 08, 2005 5:14PM]

User29A

User29A

Canada
September 2002

JAN 08, 2005 05:35 PM

I wonder if any Canadian school has ever done this. Most likely not.

I think it's time for you guys to take a good look at where your country is headed and then get out.

Ella_1

Ella_1

HOPEFUL

Australia

JAN 08, 2005 06:02 PM

Goth style is a distraction?

Well they had best be baning short skirts, low cut and tight tops for all the girls then.

At school the girls flaunting thier tits and ass were more of a distraction than the goth and punk kids...

Someone needs to have a relatiy check methinks

Shal

Shal

Los Angeles, CA
October 2002

JAN 08, 2005 06:10 PM

Ella_1 said:
Goth style is a distraction?

Well they had best be baning short skirts, low cut and tight tops for all the girls then.

At school the girls flaunting thier tits and ass were more of a distraction than the goth and punk kids...

Someone needs to have a relatiy check methinks




Quite a lot of public schools in the US do ban revealing clothing, visible bras, miniskirts, visible thongs, pants belted around or below the ass rather than at the waist (good god will that "trend" PLEASE" fucking die soon) etc. When I was in high school (1992-1996) there were quite a few things we were not allowed to wear.

However, "goth" or "punk" clothing were not among the banned things, thank goodness. Neither was unnaturally-colored hair. Students were allowed to express individuality (unless your clothes advocated drug or alchol use, racism, or violence against women), but not overt and gratuitous sexuality.



[Edited on Jan 08, 2005 by Shalome]

clownbarf001

clownbarf001

I'm lost
December 2004

JAN 08, 2005 06:15 PM

I agree that school isn't an atmosphere to make a fashion statement, and that the schools only being re-actionary. But singling out 12 students for merely being more than the previous 3 is contridictory. 3 was a "necessary evil" ?
It almost falls under the category of revealing clothing.. but not quite - I don't see any moral stance. I guess its another example of mainstream sentiment being a "behind closed doors" trend.

Vore

Vore

United Kingdom
January 2005

JAN 08, 2005 07:14 PM

Griffith
Express individualism through your speech and actions and leave the clothing woes to the preps who have to fork out hundreds of dollars for a pair of beat up jeans.

(Oh, and uhm...If they're individuals, how come they all dress the same? ^^)

[Edited on Jan 08, 2005 5:14PM]



Just because two people wear black doesn't mean they dress the same...You're coming off a little arrogant right now..You're making out like these kids should be judged on their motives for wearing their chosen clothes. Why? We're not talking about individuality as being unique amongst homogonized society but as having the choice to follow any trend or none trendy option you choose.

I've been 'called' goth a lot in my life...But really I'm just some guy with long hair and black clothes who doesn't like being labelled...It's not my problem if I conform to a defenition held by others...The only important thing is that I have the freedom to be who I want to be.

If we all wore grey suits we could still be individuals...But for encouraging individuality and originality this is not a good place to start.

[Edited on Jan 09, 2005 3:17AM]

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